ONE HALL OF AN ERROR
Jacobs' induction reeks of favoritism
THE election and induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday of Bruins’ owner Jeremy Jacobs calls into question the independence of the 19-member selection committee that does its business in sworn secrecy.
Why Jacobs? The committee members can’t say, not even the four members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association who participate on the panel under the pledge of confidentiality. That seems a little bit too inside for my liking — creating news but selfcensored from analyzing it — but then, that’s the view from the outside, isn’t it?
Jacobs is the man who has been the voice behind the voice of Gary Bettman for each of the three owners’ lockouts. Clawing back oodles of money for the owners is his claim to fame. This is also the man whose penurious ways forced Raymond Bourque to flee Boston in search of a Stanley Cup, never mind the irony of No. 77 himself having parroted management’s stance for years when his Bruins teammates sought higher pay.
The fingerprints of the commissioner and his lieutenants on the committee are all over this one. If someone could convince us otherwise, we’d be all ears. What? Oh, it’s a secret. OK.
As for the remainder of the class, there is no arguing with the selections of Clare Drake (builder), Danielle Goyette, Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Mark Recchi and Dave Andreychuk, though the latter two players strike me as compliers rather than the best of the best of the best.
I kind of question whether someone who played 23 years without ever making a first- or second- all-star team, winning a single individual trophy or finishing in the top 25 in Hart Trophy balloting, as Andreychuk did (or did not), merits entry into the Hall of Fame, but scoring 640 career goals probably fills those voids. Besides, everyone likes Andreychuk, which seems pretty important in this opaque process.
The same goodwill applies to Recchi, who was an integral part of three Cup- winners at three distinct junctures of his career during which he scored 577 goals over 22 seasons. Recchi, by the way, was one of the wingers Wayne Gretzky wanted the Rangers to bring to New York while No. 99 was here for those three seasons. Brendan Shanahan was another. Instead, the front office obliged with Brent Fedyk and Bill Berg. But be that as it may.
Next year, Martin Brodeur is a slam-dunk for Hall of Fame induction and Martin St. Louis most certainly should be. And 2018 is also the time for Alexander Mogilny, conscientious on both sides of the puck while ringing up numbers of 473 goals, 559 assists and 1,032 points in 990 games that translate to 0.48 gpg and 1.04 ppg markers that compare favorably to everyone of this year’s inductees.
It is impossible to know how much support Kevin Lowe does or does not receive behind closed doors, but I’m always surprised at the omission of the six-time Cup-winning defenseman without whom 1994 likely would not have happened. And Doug Wilson, one of the most dynamic defensemen of his era, sure merits consideration when the committee-to-elect meets in June.
A case can be made for and against Keith Tkachuk, who has the most career goals (538) of any retired player not in the Hall. I tend to believe the nays have it, but we will only know whether he’s in or out, not the reasons why or why not. They’re a secret kept by the 19 who hold the keys to hockey immortality.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me attempting research a topic by using the stats section on NHL.com.
What I wanted to do was compare the league’s power play numbers from 1955-56, when a team could score multiple power-play goals on the same 2:00 minor, to 1956-57, when the rule was changed to the current one-and-done in the aftermath of Jean Beliveau’s 44-second powerplay hat trick on Nov. 5, 1955.
But NHL.com does not have team power-play totals from the ’50s, even though the site indicates those stats are available beginning with the early ’30s. I would have compared Montreal’s numbers from those two seasons using the box scores on the site, but though penalties are listed on each game summary, the number of power plays is not.
Why? I don’t know. Maybe it’s in the hands of a secret committee.
As I wrote earlier in the week, last year was the first time Henrik Lundqvist’s save percentage was below league average, .910 to .913. By consulting the NHL-average board on the always reliable Hockey-Reference.com, I was able to calculate that Lundqvist entered this season a cumulative 109 points above average over his first 12 years, or 9.08 per.
Carey Price entered 2017-18 at plus-94 over 10 seasons, or 9.4 per. Brodeur was a plus-134 over his first 16 seasons (8.375) before finishing with four years at a combined minus-40 (not counting epilogue in St. Louis) for a 20-year net of 94 (4.7). But get these numbers:
Patrick Roy, who exceeded the league average in every one of his 20 seasons that included a run of five seasons beginning in 1985-86 in which he was at least 25 points above the norm, finished with a plus319 (15.95). And Dominik
Hasek finished plus-247 over 14 full seasons (17.6) including his plus-35 (.930 to .895) in 1993-94.
I wanted to check numbers on Glenn Hall, Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden, but yearby-year goalie summaries from those eras are not available even though the NHL has the raw material from each game. I suppose I could have gone to the player page of every goaltender to appear in a game in the three decades in which the aforementioned netminders played and done all of the math myself, but that would have taken more time than it has taken the Maple Leafs to win the Cup.
By the way: The Naturalstattrick.com line tool? Bravo. Finally, I see that Josh
Ho-Sang has been recalled on an emergency basis, which is a pretty accurate description of Stars 5, Islanders 0 in Dallas on Friday.